An 11-year-old girl died when the winds from Hurricane Michael ripped up a mobile carport and sent it crashing through the roof of her family's home, hitting the child in the head.
The incident in Seminole County, Georgia, was confirmed by Emergency Management Agency Director Travis Brooks, WALB reported.
Brooks said crews struggled to clear the area and reach the girl, which they were finally able to do at around 1:50 a.m. on Thursday.
He told The Washington Post the girl lived in a trailer home near Lake Seminole and the metal carport was used to store boats. Its legs came into the windows and hit the girl. "It looked like a war zone," Brooks said.
It is the second death as a result of Hurricane Michael. The first was a man hit by a falling tree in Gadsden County, Florida, on Wednesday, WTXL reported. The tree fell through the roof of his home.
Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday lunchtime near Mexico Beach, Florida, bringing with it heavy rain and severe winds of up to 130 m.p.h. It was the first Category 4 hurricane on record to hit the Florida Panhandle and the strongest to hit the continental U.S. for years.
The Weather Channel called it a "catastrophic, unprecedented Category 4 hurricane." There are multiple states of emergency declared across affected areas.
"This started out very innocently a week ago. This was a small storm," President Donald Trump said, according to The Guardian. "It grew into a monster."
The hurricane has since weakened slightly as it moved inland towards Georgia, but it left a trail of destruction in its wake and is still expected to do more damage with high winds, water swells and storm surges bringing flash flooding.
There is a storm surge warning in effect from Panama City to Keaton Beach in Florida where "there is a possibility of life-threatening inundation," said the National Hurricane Center in its latest public advisory.
The center also warned that tropical storm conditions occurring over central and southeastern Georgia will spread across eastern Georgia and southern South Carolina in the morning, and also northwards along the southeast coast.
Moreover, gale to storm-force winds are expected over portions of southeastern Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, and the Delmarva Peninsula late Thursday or early Friday.
Areas of Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia could see as much as 9 inches of rain in parts and it "could lead to life-threatening flash floods."
"Isolated tornadoes remain possible today from Georgia into the Carolinas," the center warned.
"Swells generated by Michael will affect the coasts of the eastern, northern, and western Gulf of Mexico through this morning. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions."
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